Gambling Webhosting and Licensing

Wednesday, 8 March 2017

So you want to start an online Gambling Business? I did just this in 2003 but the hoops I had to jump through were far and few between. I started my business on a $25 hosting account and a wing and a prayer. How times have changed!

Gambling License

In 2006 I got my first Gambling License in Curacao and learned through the school of hard knocks what not to do. And I recognise today, had I not started on a $25 hosting account, I would no longer be in business today.
Licensing in Curacao is cheap, cheaper than pretty much all other jurisdictions, but it is the associated costs that can cause the house of cards to tumble. If you are on a budget, then you need to think smart and cut your cloth to fit.

You will need an E-Zone Company

An e-zone company is one that operates from a free port or "economic zone". E-Zone companies are used by a host of industries including the gambling industry. They are regulated companies, that pay a small amount of tax and are listed on the local chamber of commerce.
In fact, the chamber of commerce lists a number of trust companies who can help you set up your e-zone company.

You will need a trust company to manage your e-zone company

These guys are essentially the paper pushers who set up your company, act as company directors, apply for various licenses, open up bank accounts, submit tax returns etc. At anything from $200 + per hour, they are not cheap and the costs quickly add up. In the past we negotiated fixed fees, however, today with so much regulation that needs to be adhered to, trust companies are no longer working on a fixed fee basis.

You will need web hosting for your business

Now if you are used to USA hosting costs you are in for a surprise as hosting and bandwidth in Curacao is expensive. Some licensing authorities channel their clients to associated hosting centers who tie them into various unexpected commitments. Other licensing authorities do not mind who you host with however they charge more for their licensing. You need to pick the licensing authority that suits you.

So those are the facts about starting your gambling business in Curacao
Here is a quick list of things you should ask or at least research before you make a commitment:

The purpose of a trust company is to manage your affairs on the island and to give your business a local presence. Find out if the trust company you wish to work with will negotiate fixed yearly rates, this way no unexpected bills will come your way.

Will the trust company include a bank account setup and two e-wallets in the setup fees? An account that will not be blocked from paying certain countries (some unfortunately block gaming companies from making payments to certain jurisdictions).

Does the bank charge monthly fees?

Ask your prospective trust company, who your potential license will be issued through. Cheap is not necessary a good thing.

Find out what string are attached to being issued with a license. How many domains does the license cover. Are you required to take out hosting with a specific data center, what are the costs and are they negotiable? How long are the contract terms, are they negotiable? Can you host with CuracaoWebhosting.com?

Find out who else can issue licenses and their associated costs.

I am not even going to mention the costs if you are using a third party supplier of software.

If you have done the above you will get a good idea as to what it will cost to run a gambling business in Curacao. The biggest tragedy as I see it is that many good people end up closing down shop not because they have a bad business model but because they need a break. As I mentioned in the start of this article, my business was started on a wing and a prayer. I had no costs other than my $25 hosting account and the $400 per month I paid myself as a salary.

It took a number of years to build up momentum.
Had I had the above expenditure from word go, I would not be writing this today.

Remember one thing, Curacao wants your business and it is up to you to state your terms and conditions. You do everyone in the industry a favour if you hold fast on what you can work with. You do nobody a favour if you go out of business within 12 months due to overinflated costs.

Good luck with your endeavors and feel free to contact us should you need some help or advice.

CuracaoWebhosting.com offers affordable gambling hosting and casino hosting from Curacao. We are based in ECP (the islands premier data center) and host a variety of local and international casino company websites.

We work with BitCoin as well as fiat based casinos and would advise you to host your casino in a reliable offshore jurisdiction.

E-Zone low tax

The jurisdiction of Curaçao was created on October 10, 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved and became two separate jurisdictions, the second being Sint Maarten. At the same time, the other three islands that made up the Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba) became special overseas municipalities of the Netherlands. Curaçao lies about 50 km north of Venezuela and is about 2.5 hours by air from Miami.

With its low tax, business friendly ‘E-Zone’ legislation, advanced telecommunications infrastructure, and sophisticated business environment, the Caribbean island of Curaçao are now a very attractive proposition for e-commerce companies looking to locate operations or backup facilities in the Americas region. With a population of just over 140,000, the official language of Curaçao is Dutch, but English and Spanish are widely spoken, especially in the capital, Willemstad. Curaçao is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with full autonomy in internal affairs; it is a parliamentary democracy and is politically stable. The Netherlands government is responsible for defense and foreign affairs. The legal system is based on Dutch civil law but includes some influence from English common law. Curaçao is not naturally well-favoured with domestic resources. The economy is largely based on tourism, petroleum processing/trans-shipment, and offshore finance. However, the offshore financial sector has developed steadily since its origins in the Second World War, giving Curaçao, in particular, a more sophisticated business infrastructure than most countries in the region. There are no government restrictions on foreign-owned businesses in Curaçao, and inwards investment is encouraged. The strongest commercial links are with the Netherlands and the United States, and this is reflected in the available selection of local professional services and their personnel and skills. Likewise, there is a sophisticated financial structure in place which is based on a Netherlands model. In a bid to encourage exports, employment generation and economic growth generally, the E-zone (services) legislation was introduced by the Netherlands Antilles government in 2001. E-Zones are specifically appointed areas within the Netherlands Antilles, from which business can be conducted with the rest of the world.

E-Commerce Park

Free trade zones are located at the harbour at Willemstad, the Hato-Curaçao international airport, and the Industrial Park. The free zones are secure and permanently maintained; they are fully serviced and have telecommunications connections. The free trade zones are an effective distribution center for export to the Caribbean, Americas and the EU. There are no customs duties imposed on imports, trans-shipment and/or export of goods; foreign exchange transactions in respect of free zone goods are exempt from commission. The free zone rules also apply to the export of ‘services’, including e-commerce-related services like data management and call center operations. As of April 1, 2001, special tax legislation for international Internet companies on Curaçao came into force to act as an incentive to persuade e-commerce companies to relocate their activities to the Island. The new law replaced the old Free Zone law and governs 'E-Zones'. Only companies with a capital divided into shares may perform activities in the e-zones, including trading or providing services to companies located outside Curaçao. In terms of corporate tax, the profits of companies within the e-zones are taxed at 2% - including surtax - until January 1, 2026. This rate is not applicable to the profits of an e-zone company if they are generated by the sale of goods or services to companies located in the former Netherlands Antilles or generated through the rendering of services to affiliated companies located in the country. In addition, there is no import duty or turnover tax charged on goods entering the e-zones. Other incentives are available to foreign investors including reduced rent of up to 40% for buildings in the free zone. A company may be allowed to conduct business with other firms located in an e-zone but has to apply to the local authority before doing so. If given the go-ahead, the company must meet certain criteria relating to price setting, quality of the goods and services on offer and the distribution of goods. The turnover generated through local business may not exceed 25% of total turnover. Employees who have lived in excess of five years outside the Netherlands Antilles before starting work in an e-zone can qualify for expatriate status, with certain tax-free benefits - providing certain conditions are met. An e-zone company can calculate the wage tax on the net salary of the employee without being required to 'gross up' the salary. Otherwise, a stay in Curaçao for work or residence requires residence and/or work permits, unless you are already a long-time resident (more than 10 years). But as in many international offshore financial centers, there are rules which aim to give local workers preference in job applications. Curaçao has a telecommunications infrastructure that is considered on par with US and European standards and includes modern digital switches, satellite link-ups, fiber optic cabling, worldwide direct telephone links and mobile networks. The underwater optical glass fibre cable 'Americas II', running from North America via the Caribbean to South America became operational for Curaçao in October 2000. In February 2001 another cable with vastly more capacity made its landfall in Curaçao with the arrival of the cable-laying ship Manta during its deployment of the optical glass fibre cable 'Arcos'. Arcos was the highest-capacity submarine cable yet laid and was the first to be 'self-healing' in the event of physical damage. Arcos has a capacity of 960 gigabits in comparison to the 25 gigabit capacity of Americas II. The cable connects Curaçao directly with several countries in South America, the Caribbean and Miami. The shareholders of Arcos decided to place their Network Operation Center (NOC) on Curaçao, under the control of United Telecom Services (UTS), the local telecom holding company in Curaçao. Discussions and several initiatives regarding the set-up of an Internet exchange for the Caribbean region, e-commerce and e-zone led in March 2009, to the launch of the CAR-IX (not-for-profit) Association, founded with financial support from the Netherland Antilles Bureau of Telecommunication and Post. Founding members included UTS, Scarlet, Telbo, Digicel and EOCG Wireless. According to a 2010 flyer published by the Caribbean Internet Exchange, 'The CAR-IX platform has been designed and is operated by Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX). It provides continuous high-quality full capacity peering services for the Caribbean and South American networks that want to keep as much traffic local for network optimization and financial benefits.'

ECP

In November 2001, a new E-Commerce Park (ECP) project on Curaçao with a multifunctional data centre was launched. The key element of the E-Commerce Park is its location. The Park is situated next door to the UTS building with its direct connection to the backbone of the most important telecom cables resulting in high-quality, continuous 24/7 service from its Network Operating Centre. After going operational over ten years ago with one data center and just three server cabinets, today the ECP houses more than 100 cabinets with more than 2,000 servers. The ECP now looks after over 150 clients located across three data centers providing services such as internet access, co-location of servers, disaster recovery, domain name registration and office space. As Rob Vermeulen, chief executive officer of the ECP, recollected in an interview with Insight magazine: “In 1999 the internet was showing enormous potential and growth and the NASDAQ was soaring high. In that year a group of people from the public and private sector went to New York to attend a conference called ‘E-commerce Offshore’. After this conference, those present believed that this was something Curaçao could excel in due to its geo-location, its heritage in the financial sector and trading and the fact that two subsea cable systems were landing in Curaçao. Redundant, fast and reliable internet access, is obviously a precondition to have if you want to be a ‘player’ in this field of expertise. The Government introduced (as one of the first countries in the world) the E-Commerce Legislation (recognizing digital handshakes as valid agreements) as well as the E-Zone legislation (the free zone for exporting services), creating attractive incentives to the internet ‘newconomy’.” The nerve center of the ECP is its Network Operations Centre, within which the server equipment is located. Only a limited number of staff have access to this temperature- and humidity-controlled building, which is guarded round the clock by the Park’s security staff. The ECP guarantees its customers a minimum of N+1 redundancy (meaning that all components have a back-up in the event of failure) and is categorized as a Tier III data center (which guarantees 99.982% availability). A major 10,000 square foot annex to the original facility was completed and opened in late 2008. Besides providing solutions to the e-zone businesses, the new facility was built to provide business continuity and disaster recovery solutions to local and regional companies. The new complex is currently housing the landing station of Columbus Networks as well the CAR-IX internet exchange. Another significant advantage of Curaçao’s location is that it is outside the hurricane zone. While hurricanes can occur between July and October, they rarely threaten Curaçao, which lies south of the Caribbean hurricane belt. Nonetheless, the Network Operations Centre is built to withstand a category 5 hurricane, and therefore the Park is a particularly suitable place in the region in which to locate disaster recovery and business continuity infrastructure. These are two niche areas where Vermeulen expects to see “substantial growth” in the next few years. “Digital information becomes the fruit of tomorrow and therefore its availability is becoming crucial,” he says. “I also believe that we are well-positioned to be a location of choice for the Latin American market. We will be the place where Latin America and the rest of the world do their e-business.” So, as a major offshore jurisdiction with tens of thousands of offshore enterprises already installed, including many trading companies, Curacao is already a major center of e-commerce activity in the Caribbean region. The island’s geographical location, its good telecommunications links, and sophisticated business infrastructure add to the inevitability of a significant e-future for the island.

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Want to start your own casino?

To offer a casino from Curacao you will need:

1. A reliable trust/management company2. A license3. Servers4. And games to offer your audience

The smart way to start an online casino.

GamblingTec offers a hosted casino solution for as little as €29.95 per month.

CuracaoWebhosting.com offers affordable gambling hosting and casino hosting from Curacao. We are based in ECP (the islands premier data center) and host a variety of local and international casino company websites.

We work with BitCoin as well as fiat based casinos and would advise you to host your casino in a reliable offshore jurisdiction.

Saturday, 4 March 2017

At the I.C.E show, in London, earlier this year we caught up with some of the betting and gaming companies, during the course of the next few weeks we will be showcasing some of the companies that we met up with.

The JUMA GROUP is a group of companies situated in Douglas, Isle of Man committed to creating a new philosophy in the gaming industry.

All games are developed and supported by their in-house team consisting of some of the leading young professional entrepreneurs who guarantee full diversity in the field of gaming. They have an astounding mission: “our mission is to deliver custom-tailored and quality software and services to the leading operators from around the world, thereby affirming their trust in our ethos, integrity, and expertise.”

Their gaming platform is powered by a variety of core components including:

- Multi-sales channel
Provide ownership of their platforms to partnering operators which mean that platform owners can personalise their numerous white labels over various mediums from desktop, mobile, retail, terminals and even IpTV.

- All-in-one back office
Operators have full access to the back-end of the system and to detailed reports which are customised as needed.

- Central risk management
Provides real-time calculations of liabilities, “what-if” scenarios and has the ability to set betting limits on players.

- Proprietary bonus engine
This ‘state of the art’ engine allows operators to set bonuses for all the different channels.

- Multiple languages, currency and time zone support affiliate and multi-level tree systems
Affiliate websites are allowed to register and apply for affiliate deals, retrieve marketing material, monitor earnings, request payments and communicate with the operators.

- Future bets
Allows players to place future bets on potential winnings of current bets.

Booming games is the creative branch and software developer of the Juma Group. They are the leading B2B provider of proprietary components for the online gaming industry. They have a unique and novel configuration of interfaces, highly entertaining themes and characters as well as over 50 games.

Booming games has recently announced that they will be collaborating with two key partners in Asia – Xin Gaming and Asia Gaming with offices in Athens, London, the Isle of Man and now opening offices in Manila to further expand their global outreach.

Booming Games are HTML5 compatible, have versatile API, mobile phone optimisation which are high definition and 3D.

A short list of some of the games they offer:

- Deep Sea Danger
The transparent reels give players a clear view of the underwater landscape which unfolds before their eyes. In terms of design, Deep Sea Danger provides players with a good quality and believable creation from the very start.

- Devil’s Lust
This game is all about temptation, indulging in one’s favourite past-times and of course big cash rewards. The ominous “evil” musical theme adds to the very special atmosphere drawing players to this fun-filled and peculiar universe.

- Dolphin’s Luck
The transparent reels give players an amazing view of the coral reef with its many inhabitants where this game takes place. Players will catch a glimpse of the occasional animated crustacean as the reels spin.

- Fruity Lights
Players will face an old-school slot machine with a peculiar retro-futuristic design. The music is a mix of retro - and computer sounds with enhanced sound effects after each win. The final result is quite unique and memorable!

- Masters of the Sky and many many more.

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Want to start your own casino?

To offer a casino from Curacao you will need:

1. A reliable trust/management company

2. A license

3. Servers

4. And games to offer your audience

The smart way to start an online casino.

GamblingTec offers a hosted casino solution for as little as €29.95 per month.

CuracaoWebhosting.com offers affordable gambling hosting and casino hosting from Curacao. We are based in ECP (the islands premier data center) and host a variety of local and international casino company websites.

We work with BitCoin as well as fiat based casinos and would advise you to host your casino in a reliable offshore jurisdiction.

Friday, 3 March 2017

At the I.C.E show, in London, earlier this year we caught up with some of the betting and gaming companies, during the course of the next few weeks we will be showcasing some of the companies that we met up with.

The Enterra team consists of experts in software and game development for both desktop and mobiles using various technology for their game development i.e. .Net, Java, Flash, iPhone, etc.

Enterra is a card game development company with solid experience in developing different types of poker games for both browser and desktop play and also offers support to all aspects of game development services beginning with concept, design and programming to Q&A and technical support.

Based in Russia Enterra is one of the leading software development companies specialising in high-end application development, design and product engineering with representative offices in USA (Tampa), Germany (Schwetzingen), Russia (Moscow, Barnaul) as well as development centres in Russia and Ukraine, boasting over 80 software developers on their staff.

They work jointly with your IT team to protect your intellectual property whilst assisting you reach your software and development goals. They are experienced in developing original games as well as porting existing games to various platforms and strive to build games to your exact specification irrespective of the size of the game.

They offer a wide range of services:

business, web and mobile applications development;

systems integrations

Some of the gaming offerings are:

- Enterra Poker

Players use a specific program to play directly on servers. Besides game services, there are other services for money transfer, access to data via web pages etc. The system is administered and managed via specialized software.

- Academagia – Role Playing Gamer

All playing mechanics are based on the idea of world modification through the system of effects. In the region of 50 effects, such as Add, Expand, Increase, Transfer, Explore etc. allow the player every possible actions. The sets of such effects provide the basis of Ability, Action and Spell.

- Fantasy Football

Using this service the user is enabled to create new fantasy games. The first step is to specify game details - game name, money type (real money or fantasy money), bid amount, maximum players' amount, date and time of the game and optional password.

- Sports Monitor

The site project gives visitors an opportunity to receive future games results which is forecast by professionals - handicappers (cappers) who perform all dirty work and always are up on sports events. Several handicappers work on the site and each of them specializes in a certain kind of sports, in a certain league or association.

- Rocketpool.com

Rocketpool.com gives users the ability to quickly and easily create and manage office pool wagers ranging from sporting events to bespoke betting scenarios such as who will land the most clients in a calendar month or the sex of a team members’ unborn child.

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Want to start your own casino?

To offer a casino from Curacao you will need:

1. A reliable trust/management company2. A license3. Servers4. And games to offer your audience

The smart way to start an online casino.

GamblingTec offers a hosted casino solution for as little as €29.95 per month.

CuracaoWebhosting.com offers affordable gambling hosting and casino hosting from Curacao. We are based in ECP (the islands premier data center) and host a variety of local and international casino company websites.

We work with BitCoin as well as fiat based casinos and would advise you to host your casino in a reliable offshore jurisdiction.